Sunday, January 15, 2012

wiggling into place (raos)

What is needed, really for us all, is a basic premise of interpersonal respect.

Surfeited with ire,if I can marshal it against yourather than against myselfyou provide a useful target

In regard to suicides based on bullying generally, my impression is that the reaction is not to fear but shame. When one goes through life having shame heaped over and over in regard to who one is, life can become impossible.

Pretty much everyone has something to be bullied about. Probably the bullies are going at whoever they can to deflect from their own out of average traits. Being perfect is not an appropriate defense against bullying. Speaking out in the occasion ought to be the natural response of any bystanders.

It seems to me that a culture of bullying allows such behavior (perhaps in some ways encourages it) by acceding to it. I remember well a lecture on spousal abuse given by a well established shelter counselor who explained that men abuse their wives because they believe it is ok. Without the silent acquiescence (even occasional approval), bullying would be a cause of severe shame for the bullier, not the victim.

Freedom isn't free; we pay by staying aware and making our voices loud.

Like Rod Serling so ominously stated in that old anti-drug ad: the only thing wrong with mj is that it is illegal

The culture defining "mental illness" implies that there is something fundamentally wrong with our minds. Rather than wrong or broken or ill, we are confused. What we would benefit from are not doctors drugging us into submission, but mentors helping us to learn to cognate and behave in ways to better reach our goals and optimize our communications and interactions.

The government/corporate complex has done everything they can to make business large and squeeze out the small people through corporate welfare and specialized legislation. Just the logical outcome of crony capitalism, not well thought out, because owning it all and leaving angry mobs to control is not my idea of a good life.

The moneyed interests seem to be about gambling, not producing. How long and well can a nation live on hype and manipulation?

We all know that money is going into politics, buying politicians to work for special interests. Where is the money going, though -- who benefits from this massive transfer of wealth?

Freedom has to be free from monetary requirement -- the price of freedom is its practice

The last President concerned with ending government waste was Clinton; but then the government had to waste all that time/attention/resources on impeaching him.

It often feels like the partisan bickering and obfuscation is a ruse to keep us off-balance, divided and ignorant of what is being done in our name.

It's not a matter of right or wrong. Certainly, you could state whatever you are feeling or thinking. Of course then those in your vicinity get to state what is on their minds.

If you watch Congressman Paul, whenever he speaks to an issue he clearly consults with his guiding principles, not political expediency. Even though he may disagree with others' views, his libertarian unswerving devotion to liberty informs his response. This is not a politician we need fear will hide his actions behind lies or obfuscation. This is a man of reason and integrity.

Romney does appear to have an adversarial relationship with reality.

It seems like some kind of bizarre dance: The loudmouth opposition complains that the President is harming the country through some conflation of what government has become over decades with current policies. The President shows how he is working to change the way business is done to methods more in line with what the opposition claims is needed. The opposition loudly complains that the President ...

I am often amazed by avowed capitalists' aversion to competition.

Won't it be fun to look back from the future era of renewable and ecologically sane energy abundance.

Welfare recipients, the ones who can pass through the hoops of extreme desperation, have to try to survive on less than a reasonable tip at a top tier restaurant, and somehow get vilified as breaking the bank.

There is a great deal wrong with the "welfare" system, mostly involving blaming poor people for their inability to just suck it up and be successful.

The "teach them to fish" metaphor would work if there were oceans of fish and reputable fishing schools available to all of the economically unadvantaged. Perhaps what is needed are mentors to teach folks how to support themselves when no one will hire them.

We elect people to the government trough whose avowed purpose is to destroy government, and then wonder why our government isn't working.

A genuine remedy would require actual conversation, compromise and rule by the people instead of political parties.

Perhaps we don't anthropomorphize enough, or rather perhaps we think of ourselves as further apart from other species than we are.

Somehow we have twisted religion into a belief in the indecency of our natural lives. If our bodies so offend, why does God make them?

We know it is useless to legislate love; though apparently it is popular to legislate hate.

Instead of acting bully-like against Iran, why are we not investing in a policy of supporting the people over their problems with the leaders?

Please, not another neocon war!

There is in the questioning, questing for meaning, in the everyday immense poetry